Some local residents say they are going to throw away their Teflon and other nonstick products after watching a recent television report that said nonstick products have the potential to make humans sick.

"That report scared me to death," said Jennifer Baker of Beckley, who was shopping for nonstick cookware on Thursday. "I have been using Teflon products for years. Many times I felt bad and felt like I had a fever and flu-like symptoms. I just thought I had the flu, but now I wonder if it
could have been from using products with Teflon coating."

Mary McCarty of Shady Spring said she did not even know that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was studying whether Teflon and related products pose a health risk to humans.

"Ihad no idea," she said. "Shouldn't there be warning labels on the products? What are the health risks?"

Recent studies indicate flu-like symptoms can occur when cooking with Teflon-related products. The "Teflon flu" could be causing millions of Americans to get sick each year and may be responsible for several birth defects in newborns, according to a recent report by ABC's "20/20" news program.

The "Teflon flu" can make a person sick with a temporary flu if a nonstick pan gets overheated.

Teflon is the famed nonstick substance used on pots and pans and is made by DuPont, a chemical company with plants worldwide and also in Parkersburg and Charleston.

"It feels like the flu," said Jane Houlihan, vice president for research at the Environmental Working Group, an activist organization, "headaches, chills, backache, temperature between 100 and 104 degrees."

DuPont told "20/20" reporters the company has known about "Teflon flu" for years, but claims fumes released from the pan when it is overheated occur at temperatures not reached during normal cooking.

The Environmental Working Group showed in a kitchen demonstration, however,a pan can reach that temperature in just a few minutes.

"At 554 degrees Fahrenheit, studies show ultrafine particles start coming off the pan," Houlihan said. "These are tiny little particles that can embed deeply into the lungs."

The hotter the pan gets, the more chemicals are released, she said.

"At 680, toxic gases can begin to come off of heated Teflon," Houlihan said.

DuPont officials said the symptoms are reversible and a warning is on DuPont's Web site.

"You get some fumes, yes," the Dupont official said, "and you get a flu-like symptom, which is reversible. The flu is temporary and lasts, at most, for a couple of days. A warning about the flu, while not on the pans themselves, is on the DuPont Web site."

Dupont said the Teflon fumes are not that harmful to humans, but did admit they are harmful to pet birds kept in a home.

"Non-stick cookware, with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) coating, can also emit fumes harmful to birds," according to a news release on the DuPont Web site. "If cookware is accidentally heated to high temperatures, exceeding approximately 500